Recessed lighting installation in New York apartments and houses

Old-style cans needed deep ceilings and often wouldn't fit under a concrete slab. Canless wafers are about an inch thick, which makes recessed lighting possible in far more New York apartments.

The layout matters more than the fixture. We plan spacing from the room size and ceiling height, split lights into zones you'll actually switch separately, and choose dimmers matched to the drivers.

Canless wafers mount directly in the ceiling with spring clips, and their driver sits in a small junction box that passes through the same hole. They need only an inch or two of depth, run cool, and come in selectable color temperatures, so you can set warm light in bedrooms and a crisper tone in kitchens. Because each has its own junction box, they can be daisy-chained along a joist bay with less cutting than older cans required, which keeps ceiling repair to a minimum.

Plaster ceilings are harder to cut and to fish through than drywall, and they crack if they're treated like drywall. We score each opening, cut with the right blade, and support the lath around it. Cable is fished along the joists from hole to hole, and where a run has to cross joists we plan small access openings that land where the next fixture will cover them. The goal is a finished ceiling that needs touch-up paint, not replastering. Dust is contained with drop cloths and a vacuum at each hole.

A kitchen might have three zones: perimeter lights, the island and the dining area. A living room might have general light and a wall-wash zone for art. We plan the zones with you, place the switches at the entries where you'd reach for them, and pick dimmers rated for the LED drivers so the lights dim smoothly without flicker or buzz. Where you want scenes or schedules, we set the zones up on smart dimmers from the start, so nothing has to be rewired later.

Top-floor apartments and houses often have sloped ceilings or insulation directly above the drywall. Recessed fixtures there need to be rated for insulation contact and airtight, so they don't become heat and air leaks, and sloped ceilings need trims that aim light down rather than at the wall. We check the ceiling assembly before choosing fixtures, use IC-rated airtight models where insulation is present, and seal the openings so the energy rating of the ceiling isn't compromised and drafts don't come through the fixtures.

A typical room of six to eight wafers takes most of a day, including cutting, fishing and dimmers. Plaster ceilings and rooms with joists running the wrong way take longer. A full apartment is usually two to three days. We schedule painting after the install, since touch-up around the openings is the last step.